Martin Escudero Used To Be A Leading Man-Matinee Idol Type But Now Sadly Relegated To Playing Transwoman Roles Like In The Trashy 'Ladyfish'

WE FEEL SAD for Martin Escudero. He used to be projected as a leading man-matinee idol type when he was still with GMA-7, being managed by Popoy Caritativo. He chose to move to TV5 but we all know what happened. TV5 no longer produces entertainment shows. Now, he’s relegated to playing supporting roles and worse, he’s been getting nothing lately but gay roles.

He first played a gay role in indie hit, “Zombadings: Patayin sa Shokot si Remington”, where he was very good. We saw Martin more recently as one of the lead characters in the Regal comedy about different types of gays, “That Thing Called Tadhana”, and he’s very credible as a cross-dresser who’s having an affair with a married man, a situation accepted by the man’s wife.

Then we saw him in a supporting role as the effeminate assistant of Angelica Panganiban in Star Cinema’s “The Unmarried Wife”, where he had very few scenes. Now, he’s playing another transvestite role as Kaye in the SinagMaynila Film Festival entry, “Ladyfish”.

He’s actually very effective in his role as a transwoman who was the victim of gender discrimination in the company he worked for but remains to be a very loving person, especially to his balikbayan gay best friend with an adopted child. But the movie itself is not something that would make him proud.

It tries to convey the message that it’s very pro-LGBT, but the storytelling is very disjointed and lacks cohesion, with many of its efforts to make us laugh falling flat on its face. What’s worse is that it has scenes that are very off-putting, including one that involves a character having sex online while a goat is around and another scene where Martin is shown enjoying while his date JC Santos is urinating on his face. Definitely, doing such scenes will not help forward his career at all and he should avoid doing them, and all trashy movies of this kind.